The Path of Rediscovery
by Fantasy-Fangirl1030
Summary: Lucy is desperate to find her mom, Layla Heartfilia, but she must first overcome a challenging road filled with surprises and secrets. Along the way she befriends a pink-haired dragon slayer intent on finding his father Igneel and a black-haired mage who can control time itself.With each adventure their bonds grow stronger, but will that be enough when secrets are revealed?
1. Chapter 1

Lucy couldn't recall a time when she hadn't loved her golden keys that belonged to her mother, Layla, once. Each key was no bigger than her pointer finger, but they were all made out of pure gold that gleamed in the sunlight. Its ridges were needle sharp, and on each key was a zodiac sign that seemed to pulse with life. She always kept them by her side, even at night, and relished in its comforting tinkling.

She clutched them now, as her father's luxury, magical-powered limousine rolled by. Her father had insisted that she would come with him to supervise his assets, but she could already smell the alcohol all over him. Her suspicions were confirmed when she entered the glittering car, to find her father swaying in his seat with abnormally rosy cheeks and glittering eyes. Dread clung to her like a hungry python. While Jude Heartfilia, her father, was the richest man in the country of Fiore, he was also a violent drunkard who directed his rage on his only child Lucy. After her mother supposedly "died", despite the lack of body, her father had been a wreck. Since she was only six years old, both verbal and physical abuse was the treatment she got from him. However, the car ride was deafeningly silent. When the limo finally halted at the end of his property, her father whispered in a hoarse voice, "Pigs are flying, so they can finally eat my apples."

**************** Flashback ****************

"I'm going to explore the world and find out that I have superpowers!" cried five year old Lucy.

While Layla only gave a soft chuckle, Jude looked like the grave reaper was out to get him and gasped, "What about me!"

"You can't come because you're too old, "was all the pouting toddler had to say while pointing at his streak of white hair.

With an evil grin, Jude scooped up the shrieking girl and exclaimed, "Then you may only go when pigs are flying so they can finally steal my prized apples!"

**************** Flashback over ****************

Lucy startled as she realized hot, salty tears were streaming down her face, and couldn't identify the fiery ache that coursed through her body. When she saw the luggage in the trunk, she knew she wasn't dreaming. Hadn't she been wishing this for years? Wasn't this her life-long dream? If so, why did her tears feel so bittersweet? Without thinking, she gave her father one last bear hug and whispered, "I'll find mom for you".

Before she could hear his response though, she was sprinting away, luggage in tow. Maybe if she waited a minute longer, she could have heard his hoarse voice apologizing and hoping that she liked his gift of freedom.

 **A/N: Please tell me what you think of this story! Tips and what to do differently are welcome, and I'll try to update as often as possible.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail; the only exception is in my dreams.**


	2. Chapter 2: THe First Stop

_**A/N: Sorry if this chapter is also short and for taking a while to update! I had to go to an electronic free camp for a week. I think I may just do short frequent chapters from now on.**_

A thousand tiny needles seemed to be lodged in Lucy's feet by the time she had reached the city of Magnolia. She had walked sixteen feet crushing miles to arrive at Porlyusica's School of Medicine. After seven half-hearted knocks, the door of the institute finally swung open and a woman leaned out. However her red hood with gargantuan claws seemed to hide her face. "Miss Lucy Heartfilia?"Lucy could barley nod her head in response to the concealed stranger before a feeling of nausea overpowered her and she collapsed on the freezing, unforgiving pavement.

******** Time Lapse ********

Bowling balls seemed to be hanging from Lucy's eyelids as she begrudgingly opened her aching eyes. No matter how hard she concentrated on ignoring the swelling pain, the waves of dizziness crashing upon her and her smoldering feet intent on showing her what lava felt like almost made her heave in agony. The blinding florescent light only made tears spring in her already sore eyes and even the small groans she emitted clawed at her throat. After several desperate attempts at readjusting her eyes, she realized the majority of her body was covered in bandages, bruises, or a white fluffy cream with an odd metallic smell to it. The thought of the amount of blood needed to render enough bandages that she looked like a mummy almost made her pass out, but the sight of the peculiar visitor on her bedside made her freeze in shock. She had straight light pink hair speckled with gray strands and was also dotted with sagging wrinkles that highly contrasted with her sharp facial features. Heavy bags seemed to trace her red eyes and without asking, Lucy knew she had tended for her all night. However that's not what made her gape in shock, the unknown visitor wore a humongous red cloak coated with real dazzling dragon scales and had at least six four feet dragon claws erupting around its hood. Dragon scales were 50x stronger than carbon fiber (the strongest material on Earth), more flexible than rubber but would only flex should the wearer want it, and is more alluring than any gem in the world. A single scale could buy all the property of the great city, Hong Kong, on a bad day. With her whole cloak she could buy all of Asia. To top things off a little flame was embedded on each left hand corner to show that it was fire- resistant. The amount of power, money, and influence she would need to buy this was ghastly. Before Lucy could even squeak however, a scratchy high-pitched voice cut her off.

"What were you thinking walking sixteen miles without a decent break and collapsing on my door step?"

"You're just like your mother, but at least she had me and my numerous talents by her side!"

"Your father told me in advance so no charge will be placed upon you but do you know much I spent on those bandages you're wearing?"

"Based on your face I can tell you want me to stop talking, but you can think again because you deserve at least this much for being reckless and causing me all this trouble."

"Do you even know how hard it is to clean blood off of concrete? Huh! That's the last straw, I officially hate humans!"

Endless Questions seemed to crash on Lucy's mind, especially about her mother, but all she could stutter was, "s-s-scales?"

With an exasperated sigh the sassy nurse exclaimed, "I'm a dragon! Honestly what do humans expect when we turn into our human form? Why would we be defenseless babes that had no glamorous armor on even though we had it at disposal?"

That was the only part of the loathsome rant she heard before a terrible pounding seemed to fill her head. At first the pain was only a dull constant throb that she couldn't quite ignore, but it quickly escalated into a searing pain that made her want to double over. For the second time that day she collapsed, but as she sunk into her blissful mattress that seemed to be a byproduct of heaven, she thought she saw a pink haired angel stare at hey with his beautiful onyx colored eyes.

 _ **Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail; I'm simply a fan wishing Nalu was canon.**_

 _ **A/N: Reviews and advice are always welcome and I hope you have a great day!**_


	3. Chapter 3: An Opened Door

_**A/N: I know for such short chapters I should be publishing more chapters faster so I'm sorry. Also if you're looking for amazing Fairy Tail and Pitch Perfect fan fictions, go to Shades of Virgo. I know advertising is like a gray area in right vs. wrong but….Fairy Tail weren't strict rule followers either, right?**_

 __As Lucy opened her eyes, she was surprised to not feel any pain or grogginess but that quickly melted into fear as she gaped at the sight before her. She was surrounded by a bleak chasm of white that was so vast, she wasn't even sure where the ground began and the ceiling ended.

The only thing she could mutter was, "I must still be dreaming."

However, after a few minutes of searching, in the distance she could faintly see a smudge of gold like a drop of paint on a blank canvas. As she seemingly floated over the bland landscape, she realized that the smudge was actually two giant doors. Each door was at least twenty feet tall and just as wide. Even the elegant door handles that flared at the ends had to be the size of Lucy herself. What was more astonishing was the fact that the whole thing was made out of pure gold and seemed to practically drip with blue zodiac signs. Her treasured keys that hung loosely by her hip started to beam with a blinding light as soon as she got near the majestic doors. In less than a heartbeat they zoomed towards the closed doors and without being told she knew she had to open the one thing that barred her way. All it took was a single tap and the gargantuan doors flew open faster than she could blink. Everything from a maid to a mermaid poured out but the one thing they shared in common was that they were all chanting Lucy to the point her eardrums were ready to burst. However, that wasn't the only change of scenery, because as soon as the doors opened the white chasm seemed to melt away faster than ice cream on a hot, summer day. She tried running through the unaffected door, but the once cheering crowd was pushing her back and was howling the words "not yet". Finally, the deteriorating vacuum and she could only gasp, "why?" before falling in a dark void that seemed to yearn for the blot of light just as much as she did.

As Lucy reluctantly opened her eyes, a wave of panic washed over her like a tsunami against a desperate trying to reach land. She was in a foreign, dimly lit room that had nothing but the bed she was currently on and two wooden stools. However, as soon as she looked at the tight bandages wrapped around her feet, a flood of memories seemed to sweep her away and it took a few minutes for her to realize her dream wasn't a memory as well. What astounded her though was that based on what happened she should have felt horrible and woozy, instead she only felt tired and the only pain she felt was from poking her blisters. It was almost as if she had uncovered a secret part of herself nobody knew about. Before she could finish theorizing though, a loud banging on her door sent her into a startled frenzy. After five minutes of persistent knocking, Lucy gingerly slid off her bed and casted aside her dignity as she crawled in an attempt to block pressure from her feet. Standing outside her door was Porlyusica with her trademark frown and a deadly fire seemed to have replaced her pupils; it would have almost been comical if she wasn't terrified of the looming lady before her.

With twitching eyebrows the aging dragon doctor practically yelled, "How long does it take to open the door?"

"I know you weren't sleeping, so don't even try that excuse on me!"

"How could you treat such a kind lady, who happens to be me, in such a way? Also before you can object to that statement, I nursed you back to health for free."

As exhaustion started to take a firmer hold on Lucy, she dimly noted that Porlyusica had picked her up and was carrying her toward a small red buggy that seemed to be powered by magical energy. In the lighting it looked like a burst of flame against the sleepy town of Magnolia, and she couldn't help but give a wry glance towards her grouchy caretaker.

Before she could stop herself she blurted out, "You're not taking me to my father are you? If so, I have to find something very important to me first!"

With a click of her tongue the snappish - dragon lady replied, "I'm taking you to my house! It's no good if I have to worry about you at work and Wendy really does need a female friend. Besides I'm tired of playing peacemaker between Gajeel and Natsu."

Lucy was about to protest about having enough money for an inn, but as she tilted her head, she could see Porlyusica's sorrowful eyes and just faintly hear her mutter, "Layla is a human thus should be referred to as someone, not a something." That was all it took, and as she looked at the vulnerable dragon who acted so intimidating a moment before, she did something that surprised even herself…..she hugged her…something she had only done once with a man locked in her past. A hug, something so simple, yet it was an act of goodbye for her and she told herself she wouldn't do again. Yet why did it seem like a comforting outreach instead, and why did she feel no regret?

 **2** **nd** **A/N: I know this isn't my best chapter but I still hope you like it!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail, I just enjoy making Fan Fiction and I'm addicted to Fairy Tail so the result was unavoidable.**


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